#73: Read 30 books, Part III.

The third five books!




#11: ...And Then One Day by Ryan Clayton: comic book. Day to day life, but I love that stuff.




#12: All Aboard! How Ollie Tibbles Became a Train by Debi Tibbles: I borrowed this book from my friend Barbi on our winter visit to the U.P. (don't worry Barbi! I will send it back to you, when I get a little birthday something together for you) It's written by her co-worker at YMCA, about her son's struggle with a brain tumor, and how he got a train named after him! Very nice, touching story.



#13: Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian: This was a re-read of a book given to me years ago by Blair. I was itching for some fiction, which I don't have much of, and it was fun to re-read. When Blair gave it to me, she said it's about everything I love: junk/thrift/garage sales, Metro Detroit, animals/rescues and the Day of the Dead. Awwww, yeah.


#14: Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende: Allende is one of my favorite novelists. Before our trip to the U.P. I checked out two of her books, and I thought I would like the second one better, but I actually was more engrossed in this one. It follows the life of a mulatta slave in Saint Domingue/Haiti, right on the verge of the slave revolution, and her master/family then go to New Orleans, etc. etc. Very good read.


#15: Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende: I was super excited about this book because the blurb says the main character falls in love with one of the right-had men of Francisco Pizarro, the conquistador who conquered the Inca. I'm a total dork for the Inca. But the majority of the story takes place in Chile, as her and her lover found Santiago and try to build a colony for the Emperor. It's a great portrayal of the clashes between the Spanish and the Mapuche, who were basically the only indigenous in South America who were never conquered by the Spanish, the ones that made flutes out of the Spanish's shin bones while they were still alive and made them play their own threnody. Awesome.

#65 & #66

#65: Have/attend 10 event nights
#66: Use my fondue set (completed 2.12.11)


So, I hosted my first event night since moving downstate. I was excited to host and have everyone over to my place, but Blair was on-call all weekend, so we had it at her place. Event night is something my friends and I did almost every Sunday years ago, before Jess and I moved out of the area. Last year I started trying to bring 'em back! It's basically just a bunch of people getting together for some specific task. A lot of them end up being craft-related, but there have also been things like impromptu speech night, cake circles and closets (where we made messed up cookies and watched Trapped in the Closet), dumpster diving, and right before I started doing this project we had a young me/now me event night.

This event night was "F" themed, it was February, we did fun crafts, and I made fondue, thus accomplishing list item #66!



How cute is my fondue set?! I bought it years ago (Value World-$2.85. I scrubbed off the ubiquitous Value World red marker price off it right before using) and had never used it until now. I also found a set of old fondue forks at a garage sale (Heritage Hill garage sale in Grand Rapids, represent!). Not only was this my first time making fondue, it was also my first time eating it. So so so good. I'm totally obsessed with apples in fondue now. We also had hard bread, broccoli and cauliflower. But seriously, it's all about the apples.

And for some reason, although Robert and I have never made fondue in the almost four years that we've lived together, we have two fondue pots. The other is a little plug-in one that came with R's crockpot. It basically looks like a little crock pot. So, for new dessert #6 from item #42, I made a dessert fondue/melted chocolate. It didn't turn out as good because for some reason the cream made it thicken up a lot, so it was difficult to eat, super rich, and everyone was full from the cheese fondue. Cheese and apples was just so much more appetizing.

The other F, the fun crafts, was great! My mom even came, she was super excited about it. She taught me how to crochet little hearts, and her and I made heart-shaped dream catcher things. Mary made her love a valentine, Megan's man made a collage, and Megan and Blair made posters and flair for Megan's roller derby team (Devil's Night Dames!). Good times!

#42: Try 10 new dessert recipes

New dessert #5: Dolly Bars.
I made this when I had Blair out for dinner one weekend. They were super easy to make, and very yummy, but very, very rich.

The recipe is here.

What I Wore Wednesday.

Okay, I might start doing this, at least for a little while. It's not specifically related to the Day Zero project, but it's something to create motivation just the same. And a blog just seemed like the only logical place to post it. WIWW was started by the writer of The Pleated Poppy, the idea being that if you posted pictures once a week of what you wore that week, it would make you more accountable for making an effort to actually get dressed, rather than spend the days in sweats and pjs. As some one who only works part time, I find it way too easy to just spend the day in sweats, only putting on real pants when I take the dog for a walk, and putting the sweats back on as soon as we returned. I don't know if I'll keep it up, as these pictures were actually taken over about a week an a half, and I forgot to take photos on many days. Anyways!:

Valentine's Day Date
Gala dress- Always the Forest
cardigan sweater- thrift store
necklace- sapphire drop, graduation gift from my dad and stepmom

Work Day
Dress- H&M
Sweater-gift
Leggings-gift

Another work day
Sweater-Target
T-shirt- Target
Necklace- artist with a booth at the Crazy Horse Memorial
Goofy smile- my genes.
Also wore plaid dress pants from the thrift store.

Going to senior skating with Megan
Please ignore the smudges on the mirror, they're from the dog's nose.
Necklace-Mother Fletcher's
shirt-Target
grey cords- delia's clearance
socks- Target

Day at home, cleaning
Long-sleeve shirt- Value World/thrift store
t-shirt- street vendor in Helsinki
Pants- delia's clearance

Head-to-toe, Value World/thrift store

I still spend the occasional day in sweats, but school's on break and I started my period, so that's my excuse!

T-shirt, "my name is mc menses and my flow be fresh"- gift
Sweatpants- bought about 10 years ago with an old navy gift card

Travel bug.

I'm really wishing I could work on the last of my five vacations for #43. The last couple days all I can think of is wanting to get away. I've got that itch, y'know? I think it's the weather, getting a couple months into winter, and with a major snow storm brewing outside. Unfortunately, I'm living pretty hand-to-mouth right now, and have no savings for traveling. So, I just have to wait out this winter at home, while dreaming of other places I want to be.

The last couple days all I can think about is how much I want to be back in Scandinavia, walking down the narrow cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan in Stockholm or the Haga District in Gothenburg; sitting on the Aurajoki river in Turku, listening to music from the jazz restaurant; eating at Earwax Cafe in Chicago; going out to Denver to visit my brother and take Robert to the mountains; Peru and Macchu Pichu; Spain, Italy, Germany, Boliva, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize. I want to do it all!

Where are you dreaming of?


photo of Gamla Stan, Stockholm, from here.